How to Do a Jigsaw Puzzle Like an Expert
A lot of people really love jigsaw puzzles. They can calm us down, help us gather our thoughts, or teach us to work together as a family. But in order to avoid torturing yourself instead of having fun, you need to know how to do things right and fast.
5-Minute Crafts found out about the most effective methods you can use to solve jigsaw puzzles really quickly.
Preparation
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Choose a comfortable surface to do the puzzle on. Your desk or table, that you use regularly, are not good choices for places to work on the puzzle. Especially, if the puzzle has 1,000 or more pieces. You can use special puzzle mats that you can roll up, and the pieces will remain where they are.
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Prepare containers for the pieces. You can use candy boxes, or even just plastic bags. They are great for storing sorted pieces.
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Make sure the place you are sitting on is comfortable. You need to have a high enough table and a chair that supports your back. It’s not recommended to do jigsaw puzzles on the floor.
The steps
- The general rule for any jigsaw puzzle is to do the frame first. It’s simple: choose all the pieces with a straight side. The corners are the simplest. Find them and put them aside.
- Once the frame is done, it will be easy for you to see the size, and the approximate location of different pieces. Don’t forget to check the picture on the box from time to time.
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Now, choose how you will work:
- Using the shape of the details. This is good for the pictures with a repeating theme with very few color shades. Sort all the details by the shape of the puzzle pieces.
- Using the colors. If you have a picture with a lot of different colors, sort the pieces by the color shades.
Before you start doing the puzzle, make sure all the pieces are facing up.
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Start the puzzle with the easiest elements: unusual details, faces, writing.
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Then, do the brightest color groups.
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Don’t try to go linear with puzzles. It’s better to concentrate on separate pieces. This will look like you are doing several smaller puzzles and it will be way more interesting.
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Once the jigsaw puzzle is done, you can put it back into the box or glue it to a piece of thick cardboard and put it into a frame.
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To glue the puzzle to cardboard, you can use special puzzle glue. Put the glue on the cardboard and on the puzzle. Once, the glue dries, put something heavy on the puzzle to prevent the edges from folding. But don’t forget to lift the weight from time to time so that it doesn’t get glued to the picture.